Poppin' Arms ~ Holding Cells

[Negrek]

More comfortable with Radiance, huh? Well, there weren't many people that fit the bill; were Joule and Maple, like, the only people in the whole fucking universe who could give that stuff out? Because of their "special relationship" or whatever? It seemed like that would narrow things down to pretty much the God Squad, but that almost seemed too fucking easy.

"So how'd the two of you meet, huh?" Nate said, going over to join the typhlosion by the front of the cell. Was there seriously no door here? Was the only way to get anyone in or out to turn off the energy shield? "Was it like, you know... 'I'm an evil mastermind, you're an evil mastermind, let's make this happen,' sort of thing? When some invisible weirdo shows up, what makes you think he's someone to get on-side and not a rival, you know what I'm saying?"

 

[Namohysip]

"I think I do." Mewtwo nodded. "I woke up on Cibus with nothing but myself, Mewtwo, Silver, and Red. I quickly realized that Red, Silver, and Mewtwo were under my control, perhaps because I was the first to seize control of this Blacklight power. I met the spy later... who said that he was going to provide me with information to take you down. It had been very useful, up until he betrayed me... But that doesn't really matter anymore. I'd like to see him taken down as much as all of you."

"I'm not under your control," Lunala growled.

"...Hmm..." Mewtwo brought a hand to his chin, and he briefly looked pained, like a headache had come along. "I can't... remember my reasoning for sending you in that Shadow Machine."

 

[Negrek]

"Huh. So you woke up and you already had Blacklight shit going on? Or were you able to find it really fast somehow? Do you remember where it came from?" Nate paced along the edge of the energy barrier. "And the spy said he had info on us, but... I don't fucking get it. That guy said he stole the meteor that fell on Lush Prairie for you. So he was already working for you at that point, right? But didn't that happen before any of our team even showed up? Or maybe one, two days after at most? If what convinced you to let him hang out was info on us, why did you even care at that point? And..." Nate rounded on the mewtwo. "What did he want from you? I can't imagine he's been working for free."

 

[Namohysip]

"There had been a few weeks before you had arrived that the meteor had landed, apparently," Giovanni said, "but I do not remember the meteor's landing... But he did find it very quickly, now didn't he?" Mewtwo frowned, thoughtful. "Something about that timeline seems strange to me." But he didn't really know how to go further with it.

Sighing, he looked at Typhlosion again at around the same time Chip had returned with Poffin, the bulky Slaking making his presence known with heavy footfalls. "All right, what's going on?" Poffin said, then locked eyes with Lunala.

"Don't bother. I'm staying put."

Poffin looked at Typhlosion and Mewtwo next.

 

[Chibi Pika]

So after all that time spent acting like he was all high and mighty, he was basically just a pawn of the blacklight guy. And of course he couldn't remember anything about why the hell Cosmog had been in the Shadow Machine. Because that'd have been too useful.

"Do you even remember how you first got ahold of the Blacklight?" Starr asked, eyeing Mewtwo carefully.

 

[Namohysip]

"Hmmmm..." Mewtwo crossed his arms. Typhlosion mimicked him, perhaps also trying to think about the question. "No. I don't think I recalled those memories..." He glared downward. "If those are my memories to have at all."

 

[Negrek]

"Sounds like you don't remember much of anything," Nate said frankly. Which wouldn't be surprising, if him being someone else's pawn was really what was going on. "Is there anything you do remember well?"

Meanwhile, Chip was back. Nate glanced up at the Porygon. "You got Typhlosion's pokéball, right? Can you recall him and put him through the slot for the mewtwo there?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Eh? Well, yes, but..." Chip dipped his left appendage into a bag and pulled out the ball. "That seems like... a security oversight that we could even do something like that with a whole person."

Typhlosion approached Chip and pecked at the ball, disappearing into it.

"Oh. Well, alright..."

"My memories are what I told you," Mewtwo said, frowning. "I don't really know what more I can say. I kept the spy at a cautious distance, and he helped me with what he could, from coordinating the Unown to craft all of my equipment, to--"

"Hold." Diyem held his hand up. "The spy knew how to control Unown? Naturally?"

"Yes. Is that important?"

"The ability to control Unown is a very specific skill," Diyem said.

 

[Negrek]

"Yeah, tell me about it," Nate said as he watched Typhlosion disappear into the pokéball. "Your world really ain't set up to deal with pokéballs. All kinds of assumptions gotta change." Something to file away for later.

But before Chip could actually put the ball for the slot, Diyem had to go and ruin the mood. Nate's fingers curled in against the reinforced floor, cold spreading through his chest. "Let me guess. That's an Arceus-only kinda deal, ain't it?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Normally, it is," Diyem said as Chip tentatively placed Typhlosion in the item slot, closing it so it rolled into the other side. "But that seems... It doesn't add up. That would mean our final spy is Pop himself if we take the immediate answer. I do not think that is possible." Diyem hummed. "Perhaps there is someone else who knows how to manipulate Unown."

 

[Negrek]

"Could be," Nate said. That bastard. Nate fucking knew it. Although what the hell his play was, the whole thing with Joule... What the fuck had been up with that? Was the idea that Cola was going to take over his bizarro revenge quest somehow? "But it seemed like the guy was throwing around judgements, too, right? Is it possible there's another arceus running around here somehow? Maybe the one from Telum? He was right by the tree when everything blew up, same's everyone who's been showing up on Cibus." Well, wait. That shithead had said he wasn't from Telum. But he didn't exactly seem like the trustworthy type, neither.

Nate turned back towards the cell when he heard the pokéball clatter in the item slot. "Or maybe it's somebody who worked really closely with an arceus? Like, studied their ways, picked up their techniques somehow? An actual smeargle, maybe? That shithead mentioned something about prying shit out of a thousand dead hands or whatever, so it sounds like there might be something personal going on there."

 

[Chibi Pika]

Starr leaned against the wall, arms crossed, glaring at a random spot on the tile floor. She couldn't really see the point in trying to guess the Blacklight-guy's deal at this point. Not when there were so many unknowns. It was like chucking darts at a dartboard.

Something did occur to her though--something she'd been wondering for a few months now. "What was the deal with the base under the Isle of Light? Did he build that? You? Both of you? What about all the tech inside?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Isle of Light?" Mewtwo paused. "Oh, that. Hmm. Yes. I do remember making that with some help of the Unown. Don't think we can just... conjure up a base out of thin air otherwise. A lot of the technology was my idea from what I remembered, of course. But he contributed as well, to an extent. He seemed very knowledgeable about technology beyond this world..."

 

[Negrek]

"Yeah. I kinda got the feeling he ain't from around here," Nate said. Was it possible that shithead was actually human? One of the human "heroes" they'd already met, or... Someone else?

He also got the feeling that they weren't going to get a lot of the mewtwo, either. Even if he seemed relatively willing to talk, he didn't seem like he had a much better grasp of the situation than anybody else. "So, what now?" he said, looking from the hulking slaking to "Silver," the lunala. "I mean is, uh, Silver, the mewtwo, going to stay here, or...?"

 

[Namohysip]

Just then, Typhlosion reemerged from his ball and stared uncertainly at Mewtwo, and Mewtwo stared back. The fiery companion crawled forward, but Mewtwo didn't move. He sniffed at Mewtwo, then stood up on his hind legs and studied him further. Mewtwo seemed transfixed.

Typhlosion spat an Ember at him and Mewtwo flinched, jerking his head left. Typhlosion spat another and he smacked it out of the way. There was a smile on his face. Typhlosion spat a third and Mewtwo flicked it; he tackled Mewtwo and--for the first time--they heard him laugh. Typhlosion snuggled against the great Psychic, chirping happily.

Lunala grimaced, looking vaguely disgusted, and turned away. Then, a flash of doubt crossed his expression and he contemplated the ground. "...Mm."

"Gotta say, we've never had something like this happen before," Poffin said, flexing his fingers while looking Lunala over. "Not sure how I feel about someone like you wandering around..."

"I've done nothing terrible, as far as my memory goes," Lunala said flatly. "And I'm just as interested in finding this spy as you are, too. Seems to me that I've been toyed with... And I don't think either of us are keen on being used by someone else."

"Hmph. Doesn't feel good when you aren't the one in power, is it?" Diyem pointed out.

"Of course it isn't," Lunala said. "Why do you think I do my best to stay on top? ...That was something Silver and Giovanni both agree on."

Diyem sighed, then looked at Starr and Nate.

"We have to decide what to do now, and what to do in the long term later, perhaps with a discussion with the whole team telepathically. Starr, Nate... you might know more about these two than I. What do you suggest?"

It seemed that Chip and Poffin were also listening.

 

[Negrek]

(( It's THE HUG. <3 <3 <3 ty ty ))

Nate's nose was... cold. It took him a couple seconds to realize that was because his face was pressed up against the energy barrier. He backpedaled hard, dragging at his face to erase the stupid goofy grin. When he turned his attention back to everyone outside the cell, they were all looking at him. Oh, shit. Had they asked him something?

"Uh, what was...?" Oh, were they talking about what to do with the Silvers? Right. "Well, I guess what I'm most worried about is it sounds like someone has a way to control both of them. Even if they mean no harm, if that shithead from the Worldcore or anybody else can just flip a switch and have them blow up the guild whenever he feels like it, it ain't safe for them not to be locked up, seems like. Is there any way to deal with that? Like, I dunno, some fucking hat that blocks people from getting into your mind? I know nobody ain't found a way to break the psychic seals yet, but can we at least stop these guys from getting fucked with more?"

 

[Namohysip]

Diyem looked disgusted at Nate, almost betrayed. He thought Nate would have been a ball of negativity just like him. Turns out he was just like all the other mortals. Pathetic.

"So, because I'm a risk, I have to be in jail," Lunala said with an irritable frown.

"If we can find a power suppressant, perhaps that won't be an issue," Diyem said. "Chip, do you have any suggestions?"

"I might have something... if I get some time..."

"Until then, how about you stay the night, just in case?" Poffin offered. "We'll make it cozy. And you, Giov—uh. Silver. You want the rest of your team there?'

"I think I do," Mewtwo—Silver?—replied.

"...And maybe schedule some therapists, too."

"Hmph. And I'm leaving. Xerneas must be worried sick." Diyem started stomping out of the holding cells.

 

[Negrek]

"Well, for tonight, I guess," Nate said uneasily. They had a whole lotta nights to figure out after this one, though, and he didn't feel like he had any idea of the right way to handle this. Like yeah, Lunala, or Giovanni, was by every account a bastard, and he sure as hell weren't nice, but he hadn't actually done shit that they knew about. Locking him up didn't seem right, but at the same time, it was only a matter of time before he did do something bastardish, wasn't it? They couldn't afford to take chances, with all that one of these two could fuck up if they decided to go rogue. This was a matter of security or whatever the fuck.

Nate sighed and glanced over at Starr. It wasn't like he was really the one who had any right to be making this decision anyhow.

If not her, it would probably be Diyem, who was in some kind of weird rush to leave. "You sure are antsy about getting back to that tree," he said to Diyem. "What, is Xerneas gonna bar you from ever going near the thing if you don't dote on her every fucking second?"

 

[Namohysip]

"Don't be ridiculous," Diyem replied with a snort as he stopped by the exit, only a few steps away from the stairs up. "Xerneas needs protection and I seem to be the best candidate to take care of him. He's a lot nicer than the first impressions you had with him, you know." He scoffed, flaring his wings. "...Mm, and I need to get her some lunch again. That was good."

 

[Negrek]

"Sure," Nate deadpanned. "You've been acting kinda weird lately, you know. Which, hey, you kinda-sorta get to reunite with your squeeze after some real wild shit, no wonder you want to hang out all the time. That ain't weird. What's weird is you don't seem to realize it's happening. Makes me nervous, you know?"